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Opinion

When it comes to Charlie Austin, Mike Ashley needs to take notice of the Riviere effect

9 years ago
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There hasn’t been a single bid as yet for Charlie Austin, according to the Telegraph today.

To sum up the craziness of the transfer window, this claim of no offers has followed quickly on from other newspapers carrying ‘exclusives’ saying there is a bidding was in progress.

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One newspaper previously ‘reported’ that Newcastle had made an offer of £14m to top Southampton’s £13.75m, funny how they get access to these precise figures…

For me, the reality is that whatever the newspapers say, there will have been contact from various clubs asking about Charlie Austin and discussions as to what it would take in terms of both transfer fee and wages.

The striker won’t stay at QPR, only three forwards scored more Premier League goals than Austin’s total of 18, a club will buy him but will it be Newcastle United?

The problem for  Newcastle fans is they will wonder why our club hasn’t gone in strong and put an offer in that is too good to refuse, looking around you wonder just where else United will get a striker from with a proven Premier League goalscoring record?

The answer of course is that there aren’t any, or certainly none that Newcastle would/could attract. There has been talk of Saido Berahino but West Brom would want a fee of even more than the £15m are asking as a minimum for Charlie Austin.

Whilst the striker has only had the one season in the Premier League, the previous three seasons saw him starting 98 league games and scoring an impressive 59 goals.

After scoring 18 goals for the worst team in the Premier League, his overall profile is surely the nearest Newcastle United are even going to get under Mike Ashley, of a potential signing who can all but guarantee goals.

Hopefully the Emmanuel Riviere episode will have once again made clear to Ashley that spending less on a transfer fee and wages doesn’t alway equal saving money.

Newcastle having spent £6m on a striker who is clearly not good enough and yet they will be landed with him for the remaining four years of his contract, with his only viable route being to go back to France but his Premier League wages meaning none of the potential buying clubs would be able to afford him.

Just as we have in the case of Sylvain Marveaux, who remarkably still has one year left to go, having also signed a five year contract, his being back in 2011.

The French winger has only started 13 Premier League matches for Newcastle and whilst Riviere has already exceeded that with 15 last season.

If he (Emmanuel Riviere) adds many more to that total then we will be in big trouble because that will mean Newcastle haven’t brought in the minimum of two strikers, such as Austin and/or Berahino, good enough for the Premier League.

 

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